The world’s baddest diesel trucks descend on Indianapolis every year for the Ultimate Callout Challenge. Even if you aren’t familiar with the event, there’s a fair chance you’ve seen videos from it—that is, if Cummins-powered pickups cross your feed now and again. Sadly for the tuners and shops involved, those videos sometimes show a truck erupting in a massive fireball on the dyno. Such was the case over the weekend for JBJ Diesel out of Idaho.
Jake Rodriguez’s third-gen Ram was performing beautifully on the dyno when the nitrous controller failed. Power numbers at the time of explosion were high—2,695 horsepower with revs still to give—but unfortunately, the engine gave first. You can see the carnage from a few angles below:
When I say the truck was on its way to a far higher number, just know that it’s broken the 3,000-hp mark before. This beautiful, red single-cab climbed all the way to 3,342 hp at last year’s Diesels in the Mountains contest. Whether or not it could have won the UCC dyno event by beating Poor Boys Diesel—which hit 3,825 hp—is tough to say.
Rodriguez and his crew swapped in a spare engine for the remaining UCC rounds, which included a sled pull the next day. He gave a glimpse of that backup Cummins in a video about a month ago, and I have to say, that thing probably has more money in it than my house. (I guess that’s the benefit of living in a mobile home.)
You can bet that JBJ Diesel isn’t done with the rig yet. It’ll surely be back on a dyno soon, and they have another year to prep for UCC 2027. Based on what I’ve seen from the shop, they’ll have a real contender ready to go—and it’ll be a looker, too.
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